Renewables
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News
PG&E Asks Bankruptcy Judge to Back Restructured Power Deals
California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has asked the judge overseeing its bankruptcy case to support restructured deals with some of the utility’s power suppliers in an effort to reduce the price PG&E pays for those companies’ electricity. The fate of $42 billion worth of long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) is a key component […]
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News
RWE Will Close Wales Plant, Leaving UK With Four Operating Coal Units
German utility RWE on August 1 announced it will close its last coal-fired power plant in the UK. The closure of the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales, scheduled by the end of March 2020, means just four coal plants will be operating in the UK. The plant originally was scheduled to be shuttered […]
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Press Releases
First Solar, Microsoft Team to Power Arizona Data Centers with Solar
TEMPE, Ariz., July 30, 2019 — US-headquartered First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) today announced that its Sun Streams 2 photovoltaic (PV) solar plant will power new energy-efficient datacenters being built by Microsoft Corp. in Goodyear and El Mirage, Arizona. The 150-megawatt (MW)AC facility, is being developed and constructed by First Solar in Maricopa County and will […]
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Solar
ABB supports China’s solar energy program, delivering digital solutions to harness maximum heat from the sun
ABB is supporting the Chinese government in its efforts to produce emissions-free electricity, delivering automation control solutions at the country’s first two concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Building on the successful delivery of power at the first 50 megawatt CSP in Delingha with China General Nuclear Power Group in late 2018, ABB has been awarded […]
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Connected Plant
Automated Plant Startups Reduce Fixed and Fuel-Related Costs
State-of-the-art automation systems are common at power plants these days. Still, many plants start up units in a very manual way. When startups were rare, the implications were minimal, but as units cycle
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Solar
Fertile Ground for Community Solar Gardens
Community solar projects, also known as solar farms or solar gardens, are maturing and moving forward. Minnesota leads the nation with 559 MW of capacity on the ground, and other states are following with new
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News
Equipment Showcase: Coatings and Corrosion Control
A major part of maintaining a power plant at peak efficiency is dealing with or preventing damage from corrosion and corrosive objects that can enter air and water intake systems, including pipes and fluid
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Carbon Capture
Considering the True Costs of Carbon-Reducing Technologies
The hard realities of an energy system based on renewables will soon be with us, causing far more problems than are realized. Renewables don’t offer a quick fix, and we need to get the transition from
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Geothermal
Electric Power Trends and Opportunities
I was recently reviewing a report issued last year by BMI Research, a Fitch Group company. The Megatrends 2050 Special Report , as it is called, suggests there are three main trends that will transform the
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News
How Nuclear Hybrids Could Redefine the Industry’s Future
The world’s nuclear sector is struggling to stay economically afloat amid a deluge of renewables and natural gas power, and reinvigorating it will require operational flexibility from new or existing